With the continuous development of communication technologies, the industry is devoted to achieving time synchronization. Two protocols, namely a Network Time Protocol (NTP) and a Precision Timing Protocol (PTP) (i.e., IEEE1588), have been developed for time synchronization between various pieces of network equipment. According to the PTP, clocks of all nodes in a network may be periodically synchronized through a synchronization signal by utilizing a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) or Building Integrated Timing System (BITS) clock as a clock source. By virtue of the PTP, an Ethernet-based system may achieve precision synchronization, synchronization between all systems may be realized, and the synchronization precision may achieve a microsecond level or even higher. According to the NTP, a round-trip delay of a data packet in an Ethernet network may be estimated to make equipment synchronize with a server or clock source (such as a quartz clock, a rubidium clock and a Global Positioning System (GPS)). By virtue of the NTP, high-precision time correction may be provided, and a reliable time source of 1 to 50 ms may be provided.
In a networking solution of radio communications, equipment serving as a primary clock provider not only needs to be able to provide a general NTP synchronization, but also needs to satisfy a PTP synchronization demand for a specific user. Base Station Controller (BSC)/Radio Network Controller (RNC) equipment having both NTP and PTP functions may complete receiving and sending of NTP and PTP messages at a Central Processing Unit (CPU). However, a CPU processing system may need to complete receiving and sending of a message under the driving of software interruption. Under the limitation of such CPU architecture, the BSC/RNC providing NTP and PTP clock timing functions can load limited user capacity. Furthermore, large-capacity packet transceiving equipment having both NTP and PTP functions is extremely prominent in large-scale networking application of home base stations/micro base stations, and large-scale centralized timing equipment which cannot provide NTP and PTP functions respectively results in that the existing home base station/micro base station networking solution cannot reduce the time synchronization cost of network equipment to the greatest extent.